The Winter Olympic Virus: Sports Illustrated projects sobering gold medal total for the United States

I have always taken enjoyment as to Sports Illustrated's projection for the medals in every Olympic event.

Today, they came out with the Beijing total for all 109 events.

I've had to construct the table.  They give the medals in all 109 events, but not the total table -- and I think I've got a theory per why...

And I'm right.  SI projects the USA will only win five gold medals in the entire Games and finish a distant TENTH on the official table, though fourth in the total.

A tenth-place official-table situation for the United States would be it's lowest finish in ANY WINTER OLYMPICS.  Ninth in Grenoble (1968 -- only Peggy Fleming won gold) and Calgary (1988 -- where the USA won a shockingly-low (for an NA games) six medals in total and only Brian Boitano and Bonnie Blair heard The Star-Spangled Banner).

The six Calgary medals were split between only two sports:  Figure skating and speed skating.

And that Beijing 2022 prediction is tenuous:  Mikhala Shiffrin is one (she's projected to win three medals on the slopes), Elena Meyers Taylor is one in one-woman bobsled (and she's got COVID), Nathan Chen is the SI favorite to win the men's figure skating over two Japanese competitors, Chloe Kim in women's halfpipe (duh -- she was the runaway favorite four years ago), and Brittany Bowe in the 1000m women's speed-skating.

(Interesting side note:  Bowe relinquished her 500m spot to Erin Jackson (projected second to a Japanese skater), but regained it when spots opened up and the USA gained another spot.)

The Russians are projected to rout the figure skating program:  A medal sweep in the women's (the only projection of such in the entire Olympics -- in most events, it's not possible), top two in pairs, silver in dance, gold in the team.

But here's the top of the SI projected medal table:

1. Norway 17-9-14     40 total
2. Germany 12-8-9     29 total
3. ROC 11-12-7          30 total
4. Sweden 11-6-5        22 total
5. Netherlands 10-7-3 20 total
6. France 8-5-8            21 total
7. Japan 6-9-3              18 total
8. Canada 6-6-11         23 total
9. Switzerland 6-3-4    13 total
10. United States 5-13-9 27 total
11. China 5-6-6               17 total

That's a sobering table if you're NBC at this point.  And, barring an upset or two falling the USA's way, a non-zero chance that could be a clean ZERO in the gold medal count.

If that number holds, it will be the lowest gold-medal total at any Winter Olympics for the country since Albertville THIRTY YEARS AGO.  And the number of events there was scarcely more than half (57 vs. the 109 in Beijing) the current total.